The military games Zapad-2017 are full of surprises, on Monday, a rocket from a passing Ка-52 “Alligator” combat helicopter explodes close to a group of onlookers dressed in camouflage.
The footage from Zapad-2017 shows at least one person knocked to the ground by the force of the impact. According to the Russian 66.ru portal, the accident happened on Monday at the Luzhsky range, near from the Estonian border. Of course, none officials weren’t happy with such incident – two journalists injured.
The Russian defence ministry initially denied the report, but later said to have admitted the unplanned launch of a rocket by a combat helicopter at a military drill. The comment of the Russian side was expected:
“All messages on social networks about ‘volleys on a crowd of journalists’ and ‘a large number of seriously wounded’ are deliberate provocation or someone’s personal stupidity,”
a spokesman for the western military district told RIA. The Russian press reports that President Vladimir Putin attended the Zapad drills on Monday.
While Mr Putin attended the drills, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko did not accompany the Russian leader in watching the drills (like it was in 2013). The Belarusian leader prefers to watch them separately on Wednesday, the final day of the week-long Zapad-2017 manoeuvres.
